


'cause it feels alright

by fraudulentzodiacs



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, basically they fall in love between the ASG and the battle of alberta goalie fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:48:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24729955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fraudulentzodiacs/pseuds/fraudulentzodiacs
Summary: Matty isn’t sure how it starts, really.Well….that’s not entirely true.He knows how it starts. A few too many drinks and some unresolved sexual tension.What he doesn’t know is why it keeps happening.
Relationships: Leon Draisaitl/Connor McDavid (one-sided), Leon Draisaitl/Matthew Tkachuk
Comments: 9
Kudos: 210





	'cause it feels alright

**Author's Note:**

> Maren Morris came out with a new song and I was powerless to resist. 
> 
> Shoutout to the Hockey RPF discord for continuing to feed my love for this pairing. 
> 
> Rated M for brief mentions of sexual situations?? IDK there's handjobs but it fades to black pretty quickly.

Matty isn’t sure how it starts, really.

Well….that’s not entirely true.

He knows _how_ it starts. A few too many drinks and some unresolved sexual tension.

What he doesn’t know is why it _keeps_ happening.

They’re drunk the first time, frantic making out and messy handjobs in a club bathroom in St. Louis after the All-Star game. They’re out as a ‘team’ celebrating their win, even if McDavid and Draisaitl make a concerted effort to stay on the other side of the table from Matty. It’s fine, it’s not like he wants to hang out with them, even if it’s hilarious watches Draisaitl make moon eyes at McJesus when he thinks no one is looking. Matty takes the shots that Gio and Hertl push his way and does his best to ignore the Oilers players. He hates the Oilers because he’s a Flame, but doesn’t hate _them_ , and the feeling doesn’t seem to be mutual.

Once, when Matty’s several shots in, Draisaitl catches him looking, and Matty refuses to look away. Instead he leans back, cocks an eyebrow, and raises the drink in his hand toward the German. Draisaitl’s face is unreadable, but he doesn’t flip Matty off, so he chalks it up to a win.

He brushes by the other end of the table on his way to the dancefloor. He finds a petite blonde on the edge of the crowd, where the rest of the team can see, but once they’ve disappeared into the heaving mass of people on the floor, he’s able to attach himself to a slightly taller brunette that’s slim in the waist but broad-shouldered the way that Matty likes. He lets him pull Matty closer, wraps his arms around the stranger’s neck. He doesn’t seem to recognize Matty, but St. Louis isn’t a big hockey city unless they’re winning the Cup – even during All-Star weekend – and Matty’s always felt safe to be himself in his hometown.

They grind against each other until they lose each other in the crowd, and Matty’s not upset – he’s having too good of a time to be stressed. He feels a new set of hands settle on his waist, and he leans against a solid wall of muscle along his back. He hooks a hand behind him, letting it rest on the neck of the person. The grip on his waist tightens, and Matty pushes his ass back as they move to the beat. He lets his head rest on the other man’s shoulder, and sighs when he feels him nose down his neck. Matty’s not sure how long they dance like that, but eventually the urge to turn around is too great and he moves in the man’s arms. His entire body freezes when he locks eyes with Leon Draisaitl.

“What?” Matty finally manages, as he realizes that he’s still pressed up against Draisaitl’s chest, that the man’s hands are still gripping his waist. Draisaitl just shrugs, the hint of what may be a smile on his face.

“Just…don’t talk.” Draisaitl tells him, and for once in his life Matty listens.

He ends up pressed up against the bathroom stall, hands tight in his curls while Draisaitl kisses him hard and fast.

“Fuck.” Matty groans, slamming his head back against the wall. Draisaitl leaves sharp, biting kisses down his neck while a hand fumbles his pants open. “ _Fuck_.”

“Be quiet.” Draisaitl whispers against his skin.

“Fuck off.” Matty tosses back, and slips his hands down the back of Draisaitl’s pants and squeezes, which gets him a groan in response.

It’s quick, and messy, and by the time they’ve both gotten off Draisaitl is pressing him into the wall, breathing heavily into his neck.

“Well, that was interesting.” Matty drawls, and Draisaitl huffs against his skin in what Matty thinks might be an actual honest-to-god laugh. Draisaitl’s hair is too short to really dig his fingers into, but he manages to scratch his scalp with his fingers until Draisaitl pulls away.

“Wanna go back to my room?” He asks, and Matty nods before he can change his mind.

The next morning, Matty’s gathering his clothes from where they’re scattered around Draisaitl’s hotel room. He can feel the other man’s eyes on him, skin and hair damp from the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist.

“What?” He asks, looking over at Draisaitl through a veil of wet curls.

“Nothing.” Draisaitl responds, the hint of a smile on his face. Matty drops his clothes in a pile and climbs into the bed until he’s hovering over Draisaitl.

“Nothing, huh?” He asks, and barks out a laugh when Draisaitl rips off his towel and manhandles him onto the bed.

When Matty finally does leave the hotel, he thinks that’s it, the end of whatever’s going on between them, but then Draisaitl texts him a few hours later and asks if he wants to get dinner. He says yes before he can think better of it, and gives a bullshit excuse to his mom as to why he can’t make it to family dinner. He spends way too long trying to tame his curls into submission, finds an older dark blue button down in his closet and the nicest pair of jeans that he brought with him. Draisaitl hadn’t said it was a date, but he hadn’t said it was _not_ a date so Matty was hedging his bets.

“Well, don’t you look nice.” His mom corners him on his way out of the house. “You know, you could have just told me you had a date.”

“Mom…”

“It’s okay, honey.” She stands on her tiptoes, and Matty bends over so she can press a kiss to his cheek. “I hope she’s a nice girl.”

“Nice.” He chuckles, scratching his face and avoiding her gaze. “Yeah.”

Draisaitl is waiting outside of the hotel when Matty walks up, and he’s suddenly glad he chose to dress up a little as he takes in Draisaitl’s black shirt and skintight jeans. He watches the other man’s eyebrows raise as he approaches, a small smile on his face.

“Oiler blue?” He asks, gesturing at Matty’s shirt.

“Please, this is _navy_.” Matty scoffs, but it gets a chuckle out of Draisaitl. “So, where are we going?”

“Isn’t this _your_ hometown?”

“You’re the one who asked me out!” Matty counters, too quick to realize how much he makes it sound like this is a date. Draisaitl raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t say anything.

“Come on, there has to be something good near here.” Draisaitl heads down the street, and Matty falls into step next to him.

“How long are you in town for?”

“Just tomorrow. There’s not enough time between now and our next game for a vacation or anything.”

“The price of being an all-star.” Draisaitl grins at him at that.

“What about you?”

“I’ll stay here for a few days, spend time with my mom and sister, meet up with the team in Edmonton.”

“The Battle of Alberta comes again.”

“You just want to see my pretty face again.” Matty jokes, but Draisaitl just wraps his hand around Matty’s wrist and pulls him into the steakhouse they’re in front of.

He spends the night in Draisaitl’s hotel room again, and they still haven’t talked about it – the sleeping together or the very actual date they went on – but Draisaitl is fiddling with his phone, his bags packed, when Matty emerges from the bathroom in the same button-up and jeans from the night before.

“When’s your flight?”

“A few hours.”

“Cool.”

“Can I see you again? When you come to Edmonton?”

“What are we doing?” Matty sighs, sitting on the edge of the bed and staring across the room at Draisaitl.

“I don’t know.” He replies, crossing the room to sit next to Matty.

“You’re in love with McDavid.” Matty points out, and he feels Draisaitl stiffen next to him.

“That’s not-I’m not-“

“I’m a closeted NHL player, I know it when I see it.” Matty tries to keep his tone soft as he slips a hand onto Draisaitl’s thigh, what he hopes is a comfort.

“He doesn’t…Connor’s straight.”

“Well, obviously. He’s too boring to be anything but straight as a board.”

“Hey.” Draisaitl warns, and Matty shrugs in a half-apology. “Look, this…this doesn’t have to be something serious. I just…”

“It’s cool, Draisaitl.”

“You can call me Leon, you know.”

“Okay, Leon.” The name feels odd in Matty’s mouth, but Drai – Leon – seems to like it.

“We’re into each other, yeah? So, we could just…see where it goes.”

“You like me.” Matty leans over, drops a kiss on Leon’s cheek that makes his face pink up so prettily that Matty wants to drag him back into bed. “I’ll let you take me on another date.”

When Matty lands in Edmonton, it’s a day earlier than he originally planned, and he directs his uber driver to Leon’s home on the outskirts of Edmonton. It’s a modern building – all sharp angles and clean lines, just like Matty would expect. Leon’s smile when he opens the front door is slow and small, something private that has Matty leaning into his space so he can kiss it.

They’re too recognizable in Edmonton, so they order in for dinner and end up pressed against one another on the couch, Leon glaring when Matty steals a piece of sushi off of his plate.

“Matthew.” Leon warns, and Matty scrunches up his nose.

“No one calls me Matthew.”

“What does your family call you?”

“Matty.” He shrugs, and Leon shakes his head.

“Matthew.” He replies firmly, and Matty absolutely refuses to let him know how nice his name sounds with Leon’s accent.

They separate the next afternoon, when Matty leaves to join his team at the hotel.

“Try not to start a fight with all of my teammates?” Leon asks, tugging on Matty’s curls while they stand by the front door.

“Yeah, no promises there.”

“God, you’re a pest.” Leon rolls his eyes, but kisses Matty hard and deep in a way that leaves him breathless.

“Yeah, but you like me.”

“I don’t know why.” Leon retorts, and Matty would chirp back, except Leon’s giving him that private smile that warms his insides, so instead he just kisses him one last time.

The game is a mess, Matty gets in a fight with Kassian – something everyone seemed to expect after their last game – and he and Leon even get sent to the sin bin for slashing each other. Matty chews on his mouthguard as he looks over the Oilers box, staring until Leon finally breaks and looks over at him. Matty smiles around the mouthguard, and Leon only glares at him and returns his gaze to the ice.

Leon barely glances his way the rest of the game, especially after the Flames win, and Matty starts to get nervous that Leon’s legitimately mad at him until his phone buzzes as he’s getting dressed.

**Leon**

_Are you still coming for dinner?_

Matty smiles, replies in the affirmative, and shrugs off his teammates’ invites in favor of sneaking off to the home side of Rogers, feeling illicit as he waited down the hall from the players’ locker room. He kept his head down, tried to look as inconspicuous as possible until he heard Leon’s voice drift down the hall. He looked up, tensing as he saw Leon walking up with McDavid. His stomach twisted, wondering how he would explain why he was hanging around the Oilers’ area when Leon smiled at him, gesturing in his direction to McDavid, who nodded.

“Hey.” Leon greeted as he walked up.

“Hey.” Matty replied, tried his best to be casual until Leon took his hand and pulled him in for a quick, chaste kiss. Matty froze in shock, his eyes jumping over to where McDavid was watching them.

“Are you ready?” Leon asked, his hand still squeezing Matty’s, and Matty could only nod and let himself be pulled along. “Have a good night, Con.” He waved with his free hand to McDavid, who bid his farewells, though Matty wasn’t sure he actually heard them. Leon finally let go of his hand once they were in the players’ parking lot, but still led Matty to his car with a hand on the small of his back.

They were silent on the drive home as Matty replayed what had just happened. He wasn’t out, not even to his family, and while he wasn’t necessarily _against_ people knowing about them, the last person he had expected to be the first to know about them was Connor fucking McDavid. He waited until they were in Leon’s kitchen, the other man pulling out leftovers to heat up.

“Why did you kiss me?” Matty blurted out to Leon’s back.

“I wanted to?” Leon turned to face him, and his eyes looked so earnest and confused that Matty wanted to throw something at him.

“You _wanted_ to? Leon, you can’t just…you can’t just _kiss me in public_. Anyone could have seen! McDavid saw!”

“So? He knows about us.”

“What.” Matty gripped the countertop. “Leon, I’m not…I’m not out.” That seemed to cause Leon pause, his brow furrowing.

“I’m sorry. Connor’s my best friend, I just…I tell him everything.”

“Are you doing this to make McDavid jealous?” Matty feels his gut twist, voicing the dark thought in his head that’s been floating there since Leon had kissed him.

“What?”

“McDavid hates me. You’re in love with him. Are you doing this to make him jealous?”

“That’s stupid.” Leon counters, and Matty scoffs.

“It’s really not. I just find it really fucking convenient that the first person that knows about us is the person that you have feelings for.”

“Matthew…”

“I think I’m going to go.” Matty crosses the kitchen in a flash.

“Matthew, wait.” Leon calls, but Matty’s already out of the kitchen, and he doesn’t follow Matty out of the house.

Matty flies back to Calgary with his team the next day. He had woken up hoping for a text from Leon, but there was nothing, and still nothing when he landed back at home. They were due to play the Oilers again in a few days, but as one day bled into another and Matty still hadn’t heard from Leon, the ache in his chest got progressively worse. It had only been a couple of weeks, but Matty felt the sting of disappointment as he realized that whatever they had been starting was clearly done. Maybe Leon had gotten what he wanted – McDavid jealous – and was through with stringing Matty along.

He suited up for the game, feeling the tension in the room. After the mess in Edmonton they all knew that tonight would be a messy, chaotic game. That turned out to be an understatement, though, and Matty wasn’t even sure what he would call the end of the second period. Epic, maybe, with Talbot and Smith going at it at center ice and getting both teams sent off early. He couldn’t stop himself from looking for Leon at every opportunity, but they managed to steer clear of one another during the game. Leon’s heart sunk a little lower, his mood made even worse by the fact that the Oilers spanked them into submission.

He lingered in the showers, his muscles aching and his head pounding. He just wanted to go home and hide under the blankets until their next game. He changed back into his street clothes and was one of the last out of the dressing room, but stopped in his tracks when he spotted Leon leaning against the wall across from the entrance, looking entirely out of place but devastatingly handsome to Matty. He stood up straighter when he spotted Matty, looking suddenly unsteady on his feet.

“Matthew.” Leon greeted.

“What are you doing here?” Matty asked, throwing his bag over his shoulder.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“Matthew.” Leon sighed, and Matty felt his hackles rise.

“I don’t what there is to talk about, Leon.”

“Please.” Leon pleaded, his eyes going soft. “Can we go somewhere private?”

Matty considered him for a long moment, his chest aching in a way that Matty forced himself to ignore. He finally nodded and turned, knowing that Leon would fall into step beside him. The drive back to his apartment was eerily similar to their drive to Leon’s house a few days prior. They didn’t say anything, though he was sure he saw Leon open his mouth of the corner of his eye a few times before thinking better of it. Matty didn’t offer Leon anything as they stepped into his apartment, instead choosing to go straight to the couch. Leon sat down close to him, but with enough space that they weren’t touching. The silence stretched between them and Matty found himself picking at a thread on his sleeve for something to focus on until Leon decided to speak.

“I wanted to apologize, for what happened. I shouldn’t have kissed you in front of someone without talking to you about it first.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.” Matty snapped, and he heard Leon sigh heavily.

“I’m sorry. I just…Connor’s known about me for a long time, but I’ve never…never dated someone that he knew about. I was excited to share that, I guess.”

Matty doesn’t say anything, just wrings his hands and stares at the floor until Leon drops a tentative hand on Matty’s. He glances up and finds Leon watching him.

“It was never about making Connor jealous. I had feelings for him, for a long time, but I knew it could never come to anything. That has nothing to do with us, kissing you in front of him, dating you, was never about making him jealous.”

Matty let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, turning his hand under Leon’s loose grip until it was palm up, an invitation that Leon took and threaded their fingers together. Something in Matty settled at the touch, and he found himself listing to the side until his head landed on Leon’s shoulder.

“I missed you.” Leon breathed into Matty’s curls, and he chuckled.

“We were only apart for a couple of days, loser.”

“Shut up.” Matty smiled into Leon’s shoulder when he felt him press a kiss to the top of his head. “Let me be a sappy boyfriend.”

Matty pulled away at that, watching Leon for any sign that he was joking. When he found none, he tightened his grip on Leon’s hand.

“I’m your boyfriend?”

“Do you not want to be?”

“No, I do.” Matty replied, maybe a little too quickly judging by the smug smile that appeared on Leon’s face. “Shut up. I’m just saying, boyfriends is kind of…serious.”

“Matthew,” Leon began, and Matty ignored the shudder he felt at the way Leon said his name. “I’m not proposing marriage. Even if this ended tomorrow, I still think it’s worth trying. I like you.”

Matty squeezed Leon’s hand even tighter and smiled.

“I knew you liked me.” He grinned before leaning in to kiss Leon.


End file.
